Dear Friends!  It is time another e-Anjali. We hope you have been keeping up with the KHNA activities through our web site, and hope all the kids enjoyed the Vijayadasami Pooja this month!

An update of the situation back home: While KHNA focuses much on the homefront in North America, bringing unity in our community and spreading our cultural roots to our youth, our homeland is never too far from our minds. At the Chicago meeting last weekend, a group of ladies strongly recommended to the KHNA office bearers that we bring some attention to the Hindu community's issues in Kerala. The first step in this would be for everybody to be aware of the realities there. Sri. Gopinath Kurup of New York (KHNA director and General convenor of the last convention) sent a timely email to us with a link to a recent speech by the irrepressible Sasikala Teacher, certainly the most articulate and soul-stirring speaker you would ever hear. KHNA requests all of you to please find time somehow to listen to the Sasikala Teacher Speech (May, 2008). The main criticism in the 1 hour speech is perhaps not on other religions' activities in Kerala, but about what is not done by Hindus themselves for our causes. Smt. K. P. Sasikala is the state president of the Hindu Aikya Vedi. As there is some exposure recently in the US media on religious violence in India, you may also want to read this article - "What Made Hindus Angry in Karnataka?" (Oct 6, 2008) by Francois Gautier, former South Asia correspondent of the French news paper Le Figaro, now an Indian. Yet another article we suggest for you is from one of the most well-respected journalists in India, M.V. Kamath, former editor of the Illustrated Weekly - "Hinduism Resurgent" (Sep 14, 2008)
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KHNA 2009 Convention Website is Launched: We have started a website for the upcoming convention. You can join monthly credit card payment plans ($39 to $99) to pay the registration costs coveniently and painlessly. You can also download the convention package and forms from there if you would like to send the payment by check. More information on highlight programs will be announced soon. Biju Narayan's music show, Padmabhushan T.N. Krishnan, Brahmachari Sandeep Chaithanya etc are all expected. Great vacation packages in sunny southern california are also to be announced soon!

Convention Registration Drive: KHNA held meetings to kick off registration drives at Chicago (organized by Geethamandlam) and St. Louis (by Ohmkaram) on October 11th and 12th. We will be back soon with some pictures and news, but please welcome our new friends from Ohmkaram, as St. Louis just became the latest city to join our fold!

KHNA Advisory Council Formed: KHNA has announced a high-level advisory council with the former chairmen and presidents, for active help in further community outreach and strategic planning. The council includes Sri. Manmadhan Nair, Sri. Sasidharan Nair, Sri. Anil Pillai, Sri. Venkat Sarma, and Sri. Udayabhanu Panickar. Please see the detailed news link below.

e-Anjali editor: Prof. R. Jayakrishnan (jaykay@translab.its.uci.edu)
e-Anjali sub-editor and Anjali editor: Dr. Ravi Raghavan (pisharody@hotmail.com)
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